High Hopes
Barack Obama won only 53% of the vote on Election Day, but he is getting a landslide greeting from the American public with voters giving Obama better grades for his conduct during the campaign than any presidential candidate since 1988.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Barack Obama won only 53% of the vote on Election Day, but he is getting a landslide greeting from the American public with voters giving Obama better grades for his conduct during the campaign than any presidential candidate since 1988.
What a difference eight years can make — or not. As shown in a series of tables, some things have changed a great deal since George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, but other things, most notably certain American beliefs and attitudes, have remained remarkably constant.
For a host of reasons, the new administration needs to develop a national broadband strategy but research suggests that users must be central actors in its design.
In remarks at a dinner at the Newseum hosted by the Roper Center, Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut analyzed the voter preferences revealed in exit and post-election polls and their implications for the incoming administration.
From Jefferson to Palin, politicians of the left and right have blamed the media for public discontent with their policies, politics or personal behavior.
While a majority of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters (53%) favor a so-called “Dream Ticket,” fully 54% of Obama supporters do not want Clinton chosen as his running mate.
The latest Pew Research Center national survey, including a sample of 503 adults on a cell phone, finds that the overall estimate of voter presidential preference is modestly affected by whether or not the cell phone respondents are included.
If they turn out to be their party’s nominees, both Barack Obama and John McCain need to educate voters about themselves in some pretty basic, and challenging, ways.
Presidential challengers — and the ultimate winner — will face a public that is disillusioned, downbeat and partisan about foreign affairs but far from clear about what it wants done.
Several factors deserve exploration, but one should not ignore the possibility of the longstanding pattern of pre-election polls overstating support for black candidates among white voters, particularly white voters who are poor.
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